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Stojan Andov: Archbishop Jovan is a political prisoner

16. September 2013 - 11:54

The first President of the pluralistic Assembly of R. Macedonia, Mr Stojan Andov is one more renowned Macedonian politician who indicates to the domestic public that Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid is a political prisoner!

In his article for the weekly magazine “Fokus” (issue 935, 06.09.2013), Mr Stojan Andov stresses that serious warnings are being sent by the international community in regard to the political prisoners in R. Macedonia, amongst which Mr Stojan Andov is highlighting the name of Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid.

It is not the first time that some distinguished Macedonian politician, as is Mr Stojan Andov, who was on three terms the President of the Assembly of R. Macedonia, publicizes that Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid is a political prisoner.

The former Prime minister of R. Macedonia, Mr Ljubco Georgievski, in an interview also underlined that for him it was an undisputable fact that Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid was a political prisoner (“Fokus”, issue 891/892, 27.07.2012) and that the church issues in R. Macedonia should not be solved by persecutions and imprisonments of Bishops, monastics and faithful people of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (A1on, 30.05.2012).

In the last 11 years, the proverbial Macedonian judiciary has for the seventh (7) time placed Archbishop Jovan behind bars! He is today in the Idrizovo prison, with visibly deteriorated health!

In the passed years, in R. Macedonia the respecting of the religious freedoms is being seriously violated, and the government is continuing to protect the monopoly of one church, on the account of the others, which distances it from the standards of the advanced democracies.

Absence of state persecution on religious basis and full respect of the religious freedoms of all citizens equally – that is the required condition for R. Macedonia to join the societies with high civilizational achievements!